Michael Yu

Dr. De-Chao Michael Yu (“Dr. Yu”), is the founder, an Executive Director, the Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of the company. He is responsible for the overall strategic planning and business direction of the Group and management of the Company. Dr. Yu received his doctoral degree in Molecular Genetics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Shanghai, China) and completed his post-doctoral training at the University of California San Francisco (San Francisco, USA). Prior to founding Innovent in 2011, Dr. Yu was President, CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of Chengdu Kanghong Biotech from 2006. Previously, Dr. Yu was Vice President of Research and Development at Applied Genetic Technology Corporation (Nasdaq: AGTC) and Calydon which was acquired by Cell Genesys (Nasdaq: CEGE) in 2001. After the acquisition he worked at Cell Genesys for more than three years. He has aspired to develop and commercialize high quality biopharmaceuticals that are affordable to ordinary people.

Dr. Yu has engaged in innovative research on biopharmaceuticals for more than 20 years, who has invented three Class I new drugs and has promoted their development and commercialization. Dr. Yu invented the world’s first commercialized oncolytic virus-based immunotherapeutic product, Oncorine® (recombinant human type-5 adenovirus injection), creating a precedent for the use of viruses to treat tumors. Dr. Yu co-invented and led the development of China’s first monoclonal antibody-like new drug with global intellectual property rights, Langmu® (Conbercept eye injection) which has changed the history of zero domestically developed medicine for Chinese patients with blindness caused by fundus diseases. Dr. Yu also co-invented and led the development of Tyvyt® (sintilimab injection) which is domestically-developed innovative PD-1 inhibitor with international quality and has been approved for marketing in China for relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma (r/r cHL) on December 24, 2018.

Dr. Yu is an inventor of over 60 issued patents and patent applications, and has published more than 50 SCI scientific articles and book chapters. He was recognized as “Top Ten Persons in Innovation in China” in 2014, “The E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year in China” in 2015 and “Distinguished Entrepreneur of Jiangsu Province” in 2016. In 2017, Dr. Yu was selected as “Person of the Year in Innovation for Science and Technology in 2016”, “2017 China Person of the Year in Pharmaceutical Economics” and “The Most Influential Person of the Year in Life Science in China in 2017”. In 2018, Dr. Yu was awarded the First Prize of “The Seventh National Overseas Returnee Contributions Awards” etc.

Dr. Yu has served different roles in many committees and associations. Dr. Yu is a Professor and Ph.D. Supervisor at Sichuan University, an adjunct research professor at Shanghai Institute of Pharmaceutical Research of Chinese Academy of Sciences, a visiting professor at Zhejiang University and an adjunct professor at Suzhou University. Dr. Yu has been the chairman of the board of the Chinese Antibody Society since 2017, a deputy director of the National Technical Committee on Biochemical Products and Testing Technology of the Standardization Administration of China since 2008, a deputy director of Drug Research & Development Special Committee of the China Pharmaceutical Innovation and Research Development Association since 2015, a deputy director of the Committee of the Cancer Immunology and Cancer Biotherapy of the Chinese Society for immunology since 2016, a managing director of the Chinese Association for Medicinal Biotechnology since 2014, a member of the Special Committee of Cancer Biotherapy of the China Anti-Cancer Association since 2012 and a Member of Experts Committee of State “Mega Innovative Drug Program” Special Assessment, etc.

Dr. Yu has been an independent non-executive director of BabyTree Group (a company listed on Main Board of the Stock Exchange with stock code: 1761) since June 2018.